Save our waters

By Tonya BinaSky-Hi News

The Grand County chapter of Trout Unlimited has forwarded a petition to Moffat Firming project stakeholders, signed by Grand County residents and visitors, reiterating the need for protection of the area's rivers.

With the comment period on the water firming project long over, and as citizens await the ruling on the proposed increased diversions by Denver Water and the Northern Water Conservancy District, Trout Unlimited's Colorado River Headwaters Chapter President Kirk Klancke said the reason for the petition was to “just keep things simmering.”

In just over a week, as many as 429 people signed a petition urging sound use of headwaters resources in Grand County. Signatures had been gathered on three separate occasions, during a Trout Unlimited event at the Crooked Creek Saloon, at the Trout Unlimited Annual Banquet and at Winter Park's Art Affair, where Trout Unlimited hosted a booth.

“It was to let the people who are governing this process understand how much this means to the people of Grand County,” Klancke said.

http://www.skyhidailynews.com/article/20100807/NEWS/100809931/1079&ParentProfile=1067

Project clears invasive plants from river

Trinidad Times

Randy Woock, Staff writer

Eradication efforts are underway in Trinidad for vast swaths of invasive plant species that threaten to choke out the native riparian plant life of the Purgatoire River. Tackling Tamarisk on the Purgatoire, part of the Purgatoire River Watershed Woody Invasive Removal Project, is a multi-phase project aimed at removing such invasive species as the tamarisk and Russian olive in order to facilitate the development of the river area for recreational purposes.

The main stem of the Purgatoire River flows from Culebra Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains through Trinidad and on to the county’s northeastern quadrant where it joins the Arkansas River.

The project’s origins stretch back to about five years ago with the Trinidad Community Foundation (TCF) and has grown since to include a multitude of active and supporting partners such as Trout Unlimited, The Nature Conservancy, the Spanish Peaks-Purgatoire River Conservation District, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, the City of Trinidad, the Tamarisk Coalition, private landowners and host of other agencies and groups. “We were talking about how the Purgatoire River, from the dam all the way through the town, was a very under-utilized resource. When the (TCF) got together, one of the tenants of their reason for being was recreation within the area,” TCF and Purgatoire Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited member Howard Lackey said. “I took the project with the river as kind of our banner project for recreation.”

 http://www.trinidad-times.com/clients/trinidad-times/project-clears-invasive-plants-from-river-p675-1.htm

Thanks to Coyote Gulch for the link! http://coyotegulch.wordpress.com/

Fish the Arkansas with Guides that Care August 30th

On Monday, August 30th come out to fish the Arkansas River with guides that care. Cost for 2 people for a full day float is $375 or $315 for 1 person. Walk and wade for 2 people is $335 and $275 for 1 person. Half day rates available for both float and walk and wade.

All proceeds will be donated to the Land Trust for the Upper Arkansas, a nonprofit organization that protects important natural, agricultural, scenic, and historical lands in Lake, Chaffee, and Fremont Counties that the Arkansas River flows through.

Space is limited so RSVP by calling ArkAnglers 719-539-4223 or contact Hayden Mellsop hmellsop@pinonrealestate.com

Denver Water Plan Draws Environmental Concerns

CBS4 Denver

Paul Day

WINTER PARK, Colo. (CBS4) ― Tumbling off a mountainside near Winter Park, Jim Creek carries a healthy volume of snowmelt until it flows smack into a concrete structure.

 

"This ... is built to divert water," explains Kirk Klancke, a fly fisherman and Grand County resident.

The structure does its job well. On the downstream side, all that's left is barely a trickle.

Jim Creek is one of many tributaries to the Fraser River. In this valley, Denver Water operates dozens of diversion structures that siphon water from what would naturally flow in the Fraser. The big utility now wants approval to take even more water and pipe it to Denver as part of its Moffat Firming Project.

Recreation and tourism would suffer if the stream is further imperiled, says Klancke who's president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited.

"This river is struggling for survival," Klancke said. "An additional withdrawal could put it over a tipping point where it may not survive."

http://cbs4denver.com/news/fraser.denver.water.2.1826940.html

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Three

Field & Stream As Corey Fisher wrote to me yesterday after we talked about the trip and this story: “When you spend enough time in a place like the Roan, it becomes a part of you. When somebody says that they are going to drill it - of course you’re concerned about the trout streams and the elk meadows - but a piece of you is going to be lost as well. There are a lot of hunters and anglers who the Roan is a part of and if it gets ruined, there will be a bunch of people who lose a piece of themselves.”

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-three

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Three

Field & Stream Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. Here's what they found on day three.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-three

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Two

Field & Stream Hiking down into lower Trapper Creek. Ken Neubecker in the lead, Chris Hunt, Mac Cunningham, and me bringing up the tail. We’ll be in the cool trees soon, and you can see across to the dry, sun-baked aspect of the canyon, sage and cinquefoil and short grass. That side of the canyon is like a different world from where we’ll be fishing, but it’s really only a few hundred yards away. Shade, aspect, water, elevation, terrain - they change everything, and nowhere is this more clear than on the Roan, where all of these vastly different worlds are so close together.  There is perhaps no place in Colorado that holds so much diversity, or where so much unique habitat remains unprotected. 

http://www.fieldandstream.com/photos/gallery/hunting/deer-hunting/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-two?photo=1

Exploring the Roan Plateau: Day Two

Field & Stream Conservationist blogger Hal Herring and photographer Kevin Cooley spent three days exploring what's at stake in the current rush to develop the energy resources beneath Colorado's unique Roan Plateau -- some of the best big game hunting and trout fishing in the United States. Here's what they found on day two.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-roan-plateau-day-two

An Overview of the Roan Plateau

Field & Stream The Roan Plateau in western Colorado is the “line in the sand” for the Western sportsman who values intact fish and wildlife habitat and a unique sporting opportunity amidst a sea of industrial development. The Roan, which comprises only one percent of the entire Piceance Basin Gas Field, rests above significant reserves of natural gas, but also provides refuge for trophy mule deer, elk, grouse, bear, mountain lion and pure strains of Colorado River cutthroat trout.

http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/overview-roan-plateau

Exploring Colorado's Roan Plateau: Day One

Field & Stream

I went back to the Roan with Field and Stream, some great photographers from Brooklyn, and some guys from Trout Unlimited who have been fighting for this place for over a decade now. We all wanted to spend some days way up high, wander the rugged canyons that crisscross the plateau and shelter the monster bull elk that have made it famous and catch a few native Colorado cutthroats in the shadowed cathedrals of stone and water. It was not a trip to experience what might soon be lost. It was a trip to see and feel what is still truly worth fighting for. In a world that seems haunted by losses for hunters and fishermen and their children, here was a chance, and a place, to hold on to. http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/finding-deer-hunt/2010/07/exploring-colorados-roan-plateau-day-one